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In Hiroaki Ito’s paintings and drawings, he depicts Japanese businessmen—referred to as “salarymen” in their respective country—in perpetual states of submission, anguish, self-assuredness, and general unrest. His intimate angles, often below the subject, looking up, punctuate the moods he evokes with these suited, white-collar workers. These men and women are caught in mid-apology, somber reflection, or even near-vomiting.

Russian-Canadian artist Ivan Alifan’s provocative figurative paintings are intended to inspire varying reactions from viewers. Yet, the artist says his portraits aren’t supposed to “render physical characteristics but rather create a language of underlying sexual subtexts.” His recent work has taken a decidedly more dessert-inspired approach, further exploring the ideas of pleasure and ecstasy.

Two years ago, artists Marianela Perelli and Pool Paolini debuted the show “Barbie, the Plastic Religion,” garnering press worldwide for Barbie and Ken doll versions of Biblical characters. Now, the show comes to La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles with new additions. Through Dec. 31, the gallery shows the models, two new paintings, 12 Via Crucis altarpieces, a nativity scene, more than a dozen smaller gold leaf paintings, a Barbie Porsche 911 with Ken as Krishna, Jesus, and Buddha.

Jean-Michel Bihorel, a Paris-based digital artist, crafts bewildering illustrations of otherworldly figures and scenes. These creatures can have a natural make-up, like floral collections or delicate landscapes, or they seem entirely alien. Bihoral works as a CG supervisor for Mécanique Générale and is a co-founder and mentor of CreativeSeeds, a training school for aspiring animators.

Sam Octigan, an Australian artist, mixes the figurative and the abstract in his paintings. His subjects sometimes are enveloped in these abstractions and disparate objects. Otherwise, they comprise these figures, like memories or something more haunting. Even when the artist limits his palette to varying shades of gray, his works absorb and convey kineticism.

Inside an old warehouse of a paper strip manufacturing plant owned and formerly operated by her family, Chie Hitotsuyama crafts sculptures of wildlife, which are often life-size, in hermakeshift studio. By wetting, twisting, rolling, folding, and stacking paper, the artist compels an unlikely material out of newspaper. The ongoing effort is formally titled Hitotsuyama Studio, consisting of Hitotsuyama and the project’s creative director, Tomiji Tamai.